The Pitt vaccine targets a certain cell protein, which is altered and produced in excess before the development of cancer and pre-cancerous tumors called adenomas. The protein is abnormally present in pancreatic, breast, lung and prostate cancer, and Pitt researchers plan to test the effectiveness of the vaccine in those diseases.

The Pitt vaccine is the first of it’s kind to be tested in humans. Preclinical models show the vaccine works by targeting the abnormal cells that grow in the cancer.

In a small clinical trial, the Pitt vaccine was tested in 39 patients ages 40 to 70 without cancer, but with a history of advanced adenomas. It produced a strong protective response in 17, or 44 percent, of the patients.

“This prophylactic colon cancer vaccine boosts the patient’s natural immune surveillance, which potentially could lead to the elimination of premalignant lesions before their progression to cancer,” Olivera Finn, vaccine developer and chair of the department of immunology at Pitt’s School of Medicine, said in a prepared statement. “This might spare patients the risk and inconvenience of repeated invasive surveillance tests, such as colonoscopy, that currently are used to spot and remove precancerous polyps.”

The patients in the clinical trial received an initial dose of the vaccine, then additional shots two and 10 weeks later. Blood samples were drawn to measure immune response as well as 12 weeks, 28 weeks and a year later. A booster injection was given at one year to confirm the durability of the immune response.

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